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Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-910786
A Palestinian State Now Would Be Credited to the Oct. 7 Massacre
(Jerusalem Post) Sagiv Steinberg - On Aug. 3, Piers Morgan asked Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas's political bureau, whether Oct. 7 had been a strategic failure, given what it brought down on Gaza. Before Oct. 7, Hamad said, there were only Security Council meetings and Arab statements that changed nothing on the ground. Now there are "strategic achievements," adding that Hamas had not changed. At the end of the interview, he said the world "should reconsider the existence of Israel." For Hamas, the Oct. 7 massacre was an investment. Call it the massacre dividend: the political return a terrorist organization extracts from its own atrocity once the world translates it into urgency to "solve the issue." The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs has measured public opinion seven times over 30 months. Opposition to a Palestinian state has held steady at 64-68%, and at 75% among Jewish respondents. Total support, including conditional support tied to recognition and demilitarization, has not exceeded 25%. Concern about an Oct. 7-style attack from Judea and Samaria climbed from 62% in Feb. 2025 to 77% in Sept. 2026. A Palestinian state established now would be credited to the massacre. Every economic measure against Israel tied to the demand for statehood is recorded by Hamas in Gaza as a return on their investment. The writer is CEO and communications director of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.